'Threat' from SMU's Larry Brown helped land UConn coach Kevin Ollie on doorstep of Final Four

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Frank Franklin II/AP

Connecticut's Niels Giffey, of Germany, and head coach Kevin Ollie talk during the second half in a regional semifinal against the Iowa State at the NCAA college basketball tournament Friday, March 28, 2014 in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK — Even with so many options from a nomadic NBA career that spanned 11 teams, Kevin Ollie didn’t hesitate naming the coach who made the biggest impact.

Without current SMU coach Larry Brown, Ollie said he might not be where he is today, one win away from coaching Connecticut into the NCAA Final Four at AT&T Stadium. A year removed from a postseason ban for academic underperformance, the seventh-seeded Huskies (29-8) face No. 4 seed Michigan State (29-8) in Sunday’s East Region finals.

“If it wasn’t for Larry telling me to take this job,” Ollie said, “I don’t know if would have.”

Facing the end of his pro playing career in 2010, Ollie was offered a chance to join Jim Calhoun’s staff at his alma mater.

“I wanted to get an unbiased opinion, and I went to Larry,” Ollie said. “And Larry said, ‘I’m going to hang up the phone on you if you don't go back to UConn. I thought you were smarter than that.’ That’s his exact words.”

Ollie succeeded Calhoun, who retired before the 2012-13 season.

The association of Brown and Ollie goes back to the Philadelphia 76ers who finished as NBA runners-up in 2001 with Brown as the coach and Ollie as the backup point guard.

“He treated me like I was Allen Iverson and that always stuck with me,” Ollie said. “That’s why I try to treat every one of my guys the same.”

Brown’s egalitarian approach impressed Ollie, then and now. He remembers Brown working out more with him than with Iverson, the NBA’s scoring leader.

“That’s why I always want to be humble, and I always want to treat my players first,” Ollie said. “They make the program. That’s what I learned from him.”

Kevin Durant credited Ollie, who was late in his career, for changing “the whole culture in Oklahoma City … just his mind-set, professionalism, every single day. And we all watched that, and we all wanted to be like that.”

Ollie has kept UConn on the national radar in his second season since succeeding Calhoun, who won three NCAA titles. Ollie, 41, was cast in the role of being the guy who replaced the guy, never an enviable situation.

During a season-opening game in Germany last season, Ollie got advice from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who followed a national championship winning coach in Jud Heathcote. Izzo said he told Ollie to “embrace it, because [Calhoun] has got a lot of knowledge and can really help you.”

Calhoun was waiting near the court to hug Ollie after Friday’s win over Iowa State.

The elation was a far cry from the disappointment of the season before.

Then UConn faced a one-year postseason NCAA ban for low academic progress rate scores under Calhoun, the first power conference school to face such a sanction.

Some players left. Others, like All-American guard Shabazz Napier and power forward DeAndre Daniels, could have bailed and didn’t.

Napier said he learned from Ollie and his staff how hard the team would work, especially in the first practice when Ollie “had us running around with no basketballs for like 30 minutes.”

As he has before, Ollie mentioned all the things the players lost for a season.

“We couldn't come here for the tournament,” Ollie said, “but they weren’t banned from loving and pushing and encouraging each other, and that’s what it's all about.

“If you don’t give up in the dark times, it will reverse, the wind will start going in your favor, your direction, and I think that’s what’s happened now.”

Kevin Ollie

Position: UConn coach

Hometown: Born in Dallas, raised in Los Angeles

Age: 41

Year: Second (49-18)

College: Connecticut

Pro career: 13 NBA seasons with 11 franchises for 15 different coaches, including the 1997-98 Mavericks.

Quote: “After 13 years in the NBA, Kevin’s got a Ph.D in basketball.” — Former UConn coach Jim Calhoun

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